Commercial Starships
"Thank you for riding on Solar-Wind Spaceways, the safest and fastest transit in the core worlds. Please remember to have your travel documentation handy for the customs inspection gate, buh bye now!" '' ~Flight attendant during disembarkation, Solar-Wind Spaceway Travel intpl. ------- The majority of ships one will encounter in transit to and from distant stars are commercial starships. From the Enormous Asteroid mining ships of the Derkosian Mining Interplanetary, to the sleek luxury passenger liners of Duo-Trans Spacelines. Bulk transports several kilometers in length from Cyonudyne interplanetary shippers, to the Galactic Terraform Conglomerate "Seeder ships" packed with eager colonists on their way to a new life. What they all have in common is they are part of a fleet (Small or galaxy spanning) of ships owned by a corporation (or sometimes government) operating on behalf of, and for the profits of as well, that company. As any independent captain will tell you, operating a starship is expensive an investment. For most current interstellar companies, they already have a basis of operations with shipping or mining or cruise lines on their planet of origin, and then to further expand their profits, make plans to take their business interstellar. Due to costs involved, rarely is there such a thing as a "Mom and Pop" Interstellar corporation. And even more rare is a start-up that doesn't already have a great deal of capital. Some companies will go interstellar for business models, however will enter into arrangements to ship their goods for import and export with an already established company rather than risk the investment of their own fleet. There are, after all, few environments as hazardous as space and making the trip from star system to star system is not one prudent business beings enter into lightly. Most Commercial ships will be designed by a development team, and once testing is done, the company will buy anywhere from 20 to 300 of them at a go. Some starship development companies exist solely for testing new frames and devices and then filling orders across a wide variety of clients. Thus the passenger liners from Pegasus Spaceways may be the exact same layout as the ones from Star-Skimmer Discount Transit (Though usually a company will have internal and external cosmetic changes to assist in maintaining the brand). Several varieties of Commercial Starships one may encounter are: ------- '''Freighters' "Careful with the loader there Junior. Each of those crates containes refined Biomolecules, and each one is worth more than everyone on this here ship will earn in our lifetimes if we live to be a two-hundred years old and work till the day we die. Load em up real gentle like and we can get on to makin the board of directors even more rich." '' ~Cargo handler Halstad Gerald, IFC Gallahad, Jojoba Biomedical Supply Fleet Even the most basic Agrarian society that relies on barter and trade requires movement of materials and products from one point to another. A courier ship may be the fastest way to deliver a small parcel or package from point A to B, and a light freighter owned by a Independent captain may be the fastest way to get the self-sealing Sprocket assemblies to where they are needed. For sheer tonnage of cargo needing moved, the bulk freighters are the most economical. Usually a Commercial freighter will sell tonnage and space for shipping materials and objects, take the load on at point A, deliver it at Point B, and have a set route that takes it through several dozen star systems where it will pick up and deliver various parts of it's cargo along the way. It's quite rare for all the tonnage of a cargo hold to be a singular point to point pickup and deliver system. Square metric space of the cargo, along with mass, and then additional possible fees if it needs to be specially handled in transit (Such as combustible gasses) or special delivery options all add to the cost one can pay for shipping in bulk, though at the end it's more cost effective to pay for 300 Units of cargo space if delivery time is not a factor, than to rent the services of an entire light freighter. One thing of note, most modern societies have little in the way of need of raw materials, a industrialized stellar society will generally have access to facilities to obtain iron ore, Zinc, Water, Methane and so on. Unless the world is somehow poor in metallic resources (Some colonies were accidentally set up that way or intentionally) what is mostly transported are finished goods, or rare materials such as processed bio-matter, or rare isotopes that cannot be safely manufactured locally. There are few modern or near modern planets that would be importing liquid water (or ice) Via Spacecraft, when they could quite readily obtain it themselves through much more cost effective processes. That doesn't mean that transporting atomic converters that can press hydrogen and Oxygen into water for a world with little or near toxic surface or ground water isn't lucrative, it's just that one will rarely show up attempting to sell blocks of ice and not expect to be laughed at, let alone make any kind of profit. Generally mechanical, electronic or other manufactured goods, Artworks or rare isotopes, or occasionally exotic foodstuffs or processed alcoholic beverages are most likely to be on the cargo manifest of a commercial freighter. ------- '''Passenger liners' "Classical elegance with modern amenities is what you'll travel with on the Da Vinci Spaceways. Each of our liners has painstakingly replicated the grand concourse from the Interstellar Queen for our first class passengers to enjoy shows, casual dining and of course a nightly grand ball. All that with near real time hyperwave relay access for our business professionals who can't be out of touch, and recreation facilities second to none. At Da Vinci we do all we can to ensure that when you reach your destination, you'll not want to leave." '' ~Sales pitch for Da Vinci Spaceways Just as an interstellar economy requires objects and goods to be moved, so does it also require means to move people from place to place. Everything from bulky movers where passengers are packed in similar to cargo, to large expansive "cities in space" Cruise liners. Sometimes even a "two rations allowance a day and a corner for your billet" Steerage class ticket will be on the same craft as a Triple platinum First class travel experience. Commercial passenger liners move beings from one end of the stars to the other. Though the various designs differ, there are certain key features all Commercial passenger liners share in common. Life Support: All commercial liners must have adequate life support facilities, in the form of atmospheric renewal, food, water and functioning temperature controls for all crew and passengers. General regulations include atmospheric scrubbers and even spare atmospheric tanks holding enough to completely replenish the ship with breathable atmosphere. Also waste processing and reclamation facilities to ensure that all the potential passengers (whether running a full load or not) have all their basic needs met. Cargo Stowage: Commercial liners have areas set aside for the passenger's luggage that is not needed to be accessed while in transit. Usually should someone find themselves having mistakenly packed something that is stowed, the area is accessible via the crew, however it usually has to be something a bit more important than "Nana's favorite necklace" to warrant such. Sleeping facilities: Depending on the travel time and the interstellar Drive type used, a lot of Commercial passenger ships will make use of induced sleep chambers for passengers where most of the trip will be spent sleeping the light years away. Naturally drives like the Dimensional transit drive or FTL preclude such from being viable except for really short trips, However for use of Tachyon Drives, or Zero-point Relay it saves on a great deal of expense. Otherwise Commercial Passenger liners will provide accommodation for Most beings to sleep. Be this a expanse of Suites and facilities for First class tickets, to a shared bunk room with 8 other beings for Steerage class. Escape and Survival equipment: One of the few regulations that currently is accepted procedure for all Commercial passenger liners operating is to have adequate escape pods and survival equipment for all crew and passengers. Rumors of there only being enough escape pods and equipment for the First class and crew would be just that, rumors. Ideally the Escape craft are situated in locations easily accessible from anywhere on the ship. And thus should something catastrophic happen, the ideal situation would be for 100% of the beings on board to be able to make it into a escape craft and launch safely. Naturally it's hardly mentioned that anything catastrophic enough to cause for a full abandoning of the ship is probably going to have already have caused casualties. It is, however, to their credit that to date less than 1% of all loss of life on a passenger liner that needed evacuated was due to inadequate escape and survival supplies. Commercial passenger liners are of a similar build to interstellar cruise lines in that they operate interstellarly, the main difference is that cruise liners tend to have a lot more amenities on board and follow along set routes that allow for those on board to see various spacial phenomena and tend to stick to high-tourism level planets. Passenger liners tend to be a lot more economical and will travel to a wider variety of worlds, though tend to stick to population "hubs" for primary transit where they can fill the most cabins with paying customers. Passenger liners are not private transports. They do not always go to the destination that someone on board wishes them to. Usually a liner will have a course from a planetary system to another, with stopovers at a half dozen along the way to exchange passengers. Some liners are dedicated from one heavily populated planet on a express to another, where passengers make use of smaller craft to reach the nearby outlaying systems. There are some fringe systems that only have a transport liner arrive every three to six standard months, so being on time and ready to go to make that connection can be of utmost importance. ------- '''Mining Ships' "I used to work on one of those nebula mining vessels, getting light gasses from the ramscoop. Hours were lousy and the pay was horrible so when the position as navigator on a Gas giant mining ship opened up I put in for the transfer. Now I calculate trajectories to have us diving for those rich gas pockets just in the outer atmosphere so we can snag em. Sure it means barreling at several thousand kilometers per hour directly at a gas giant where if I mess up the gravity well will snag us and we'll all be crushed down to the size of a walnut, but the pay is much better." '' ~Navigator Joseph Ritchie, IMV AAX-786634 (Flying Minnow) During an interview. Most planetary systems reach a point where further mining or exploitation of their own primary is no longer viable. Either the resources remaining are too difficult to reach, or weren't there to begin with, or are otherwise cost prohibitive to make it worth obtaining. Many reach a point where gathering the untapped resources of their own planetary system becomes the next logical step (And from there tapping the resources of other planetary systems either through trade or direct mining). Most mining ships will be System based ships that operate in space for a great deal of time. rarely are they "interstellar" in that they leave a planetary system and jump to another. A lot are equipped with interstellar drive units, if only to facilitate speedy transit to maintenance facilities or further processing, or on the off-chance that they may need to be dispatched to help handle processing a lucrative "strike" in another nearby system. Occasionally a uninhabited system will be slated for mining rights, which requires the ships to be able to travel to the work site and eventually leave once it's dried up. Though for the most part such interstellar drives remain powered down and all but unused. Like Cruise liners, mining ships are generally akin to large processing cities in space. Some work crews live entirely on board the ship for their contracts, and only leave to take vacation on nearby settlements. In any given system one will see all manner of Mining Craft, from the Asteroid catchers who send out smaller craft to "wrangle" an asteroid into it's processing center to be broken down and processed, to the Gas-mining ships that use ramscoops to obtain rare elemental or compounded gasses from gas giants or nebulae, even the giant solar power collector mines that unfurl pitch black collection sails and transmit energy directly back to a receiving station on a planet. These are the ships that provide the basic materials that make everyday modern life functional. ------- '''Colonization Ships' "Now remember, we'll be arriving in the third wave of ships to colonize the planet. The group from the first ship will have been there nearly fifty years, and the second for twenty. They may have adopted all manner of strange ways and funny idioms of speech. But they also paved the way for us to have a nice landing area and some manner of Civilization when we take over our landholding. Not to mention that if we get in trouble their going to be the ones to help us out. So you kids be on your best behavior." '' ''~Meister Volstov, "Colonial Debters" Novella Series, Chapter 1 Rarely does a species remain on the planet of it's evolution once the expanse of interstellar space is open and available. Some Expand outward to other planets out of need (Overpopulation, lack of resources, or other factors on their homeworld) some out of desire (Exploration, or a chance to lay claim to owning actual land) and some simply due to a genetic drive for survival (Spread out means more targets to exterminate the species after all). Whatever the reason, Colonization ships are what are used to start, or add to a colony far from home. Younger species will experiment with things like "Sleeper ships" with their passengers stuck in some kind of suspension for the decades of travel, or a generational colony ship where their children's children are the ones who will colonize (Whether they want to be colonists or not). Once a species obtains interstellar drive technology, however, a lot of times they superseded such craft in expansion. There are, in fact, records of sleeper colony ships arriving at a planet they expected to be a barren wilderness only to find settlements and thriving economies already in place from colonists who left after them, but arrived sooner. The most difficult type of Colonization is one that alters a planet (or moon) from it's current atmosphere into what the beings inhabiting the planet use. The nickname for this is "Forming the planet" (though some species shorten it to Terraforming or Pyroforming depending on their preference). Forming a planet to make it habitable is usually undertaken mainly with systems where there is a need to colonize (Rare resources that can be mined, Conditions are Close, but not ideal to support life, the Ship is somehow off-course and has not enough fuel to reach another location (though the last is highly rare anymore)) As it is the most time and Energy consuming first step. Generally Colonization comes in several steps. Step I: Survey crews find and catalog a planetary system as being possible for life sustaining planets. Followed up by mineral and other types of Surveys of the System itself. A lot of systems are labeled as a classification during this process, and their classification gives them a priority listing for beneficial colonization. Usually the records of this Survey are a matter of public record anyone can look at, though sometimes the highest classifications aren't listed till a company or government has already dispatched ships to lay claim. Note: it is possible that a group may file for claim to a planetary system on the list, And go through the steps to form a colonization charter with the Government, provided they can fiscally show they can establish the colony on their own. Though competition for higher value planets may make it impractical for say a group seeking political or religious refuge to obtain a charter, or even depart without one to take over a planetary system, it is more possible with lower end planets. In fact several times in history planetary governments have taken prisoners, loaded them into colony ships and sent them to go "Colonize" a unremarkable planetary system. Step II: Signing on, training and establishing a Colony Charter. The company looking to expand will recruit persons willing to Make a new planet their home, file for claim to the system and organize a charter for the government. The Charter may differ, but usually it will consist of a statement that the company holds all rights to materials etc for the colony, and the colony agrees to pay taxes or the like (usually from the company itself) to the government, in return for armed forces protection. Once all the potential colonists are selected and trained and the charter signed and approved, the actual use of colony ships begins. Step III: First wave. The First Colony Ship(s) are sent out to travel to the planet, where they are usually landed and broken down for materials, or stripped in orbit of everything useful (most are designed for either purpose) and left behind as a orbiting satellite for relaying information. The First wave of colonials is usually the most difficult, as they are the ones who have to form settlements, landing areas, and pave the way to make the colony viable for interstellar work. rarely will a colony be sent to set up an agrarian or "retro culture", though such has been known to be done, both intentionally and unintentionally. Step IV: Follow up. Second and Third and other waves of colonials travel from the primary planet they were from and come to settle on the planet. Usually by the time this is underway the Follow up colony ships are designed to bring people, and return loaded with materials or other profitable items that the corporation or government set up the colony to begin with. Usually if forming a planet needs to occur it will be done as part of Step III, with the first wave bringing in atmospheric converters and other equipment to form the planet to hospitable conditions. Sometimes despite all the plans or preparations a colony will simply fail. Either the machinery breaks down, a unexpected complication destroys food supplies, the colonists are simply unable to handle unforeseen stellar phenomena. In lucky cases, the colonists can be evacuated from such in a timely manner, in other cases they simply disappear without word or a trace. Though with today's modern advances a lot of times most colonies establish themselves and thrive. ------- Exploration & Survey Vessels "...And note if this planet doesn't have a solid core of Trinium, or a species of Blue-skinned musclular men in loincloths, then a certain crew had best leave me a message rather than wake me up again, I don't care if you see another ocean shaped like a bunny." '' ''~Part of the Captain's "Do not Disturb" message, PSV HN12-7595 (Persephone) Kinaii Exploration Corp Though they come in many shapes, sizes and forms, Commercial survey ships have generally one purpose. Travel to a Stellar system, survey the materials, check for intelligent life, and submit those findings back to base. Usually equipped with the most sensitive in surveying scanner equipment, probes, small survey craft and a wide variety of items to make the survey as detailed as possible. If the system does have intelligent life, usually it's not the survey ship that will make contact (Though exceptions have occurred) that's for other follow up surveys and first contact specialists to handle. They are just there to see if the System is worth further exploration, follow up expeditions or exploitation wither with mining or colonization. A lot of times a tradition was that the First ship to Survey a planetary system could name it, or any habitable worlds found in orbit of the primary. though this tradition tends to waiver based on how many submitted planets are named after parts of genitals or pets. ------- Construction Ships "Yush, Turk like job. Easy job. Bosses, he say 'Turk, help move big thing to new place' and I move big thing. Turk very good at moving big thing." ''"Turk there is correct Miss. Heck, so long as we do our jobs right, Kinetics like him just need to move the packages to near the right location. Bunch of stellar engineers planetside assemble the packages, we launch em, they unfold, and so long as we haven't broken anything, everyone's happy. We get paid, the company gets paid, and the system has a new relay so those costs to call the outer planets goes down." ''~"Teeks in Space", Documentary program. Interstellar Construction and repair ships are a far common site in any inhabited system. Not just limited to construction, many are engaged in deploying of satellites, collection of damaged materials, deploying of Dimensional gateways, or any other type of heavy labor that helps make a modern species able to remain at an interstellar level of operation. Some of these ships are designed to take raw materials from mining ships, and process them into components that are then used to build an orbiting supply platform, or habitat facility, or even another type of ship. others are designed to take prefabricated components, pre-assemble as much as possible, and then maneuver into proper position for deployment or addition. Usually seen as a combination carrier (Most will have several dozen deployable smaller craft or drones to assist with construction and repair) factory station and flying warehouse of parts, some of the bigger construction ships may be mistaken for space stations in and of themselves, up until they start moving. Usually the most basic of Construction ships will be at a orbiting construction station where they are flitting about here and there delivering components or inspecting spaceframes or the like. A lot of times accidents are uncommon and more the failure of a operator than failure of the vehicle itself. A lot of "Spacers" tend to get their start on board a construction ship of some sort, and a great many of them got their "ZG legs" in a suit welding ablative plating onto a spaceframe. ------- Service Craft "Velocity and trajectory match up. Initiate magnetic traction array. Good, First of the Dozen boys and girls, once again. Transmit the Timestamp to the other captains and remind them the last one is buying at the club tonight." '' ~Captain Yan Junrai, Guidance Tug AA012. Service Craft is a catch-all for things such as refueling tankers, resupply ships (with foodstuffs or atmosphere, etc) Space tugs to help less maneuverable behemoth type ships maneuver cleanly, and other types of craft that are designed to provide services to larger or other vessels. Not as glamorous captaining a "space tug" as say piloting for a interstellar passenger liner, a lot of crews currently in employment to companies proved their worth in service craft first before being promoted to their current positions. Which also, for a lot of them, serves as a reminder that they can just as easily be "transferred" back to the waste collection and supplies replenishment ships if they mess up. ------- '''Salvage Craft' "Looks like we finally have a lead on what happened to that missing passenger transport. Navigation, confirm location and send back to home base. Helmsman, bring us along side and let's scan to see if there's anyone left alive on board. Then check for cargo, and then damage. Remember we only get the bonus if we bring something back that's usable, and I for one am tired of drinking the cheap beer..." '' ~Captain Ginaw'lressen, Tri-Star Recovery Interplanetary. Sometimes referred to as "Scavengers" or "bone-pickers", Salvage craft are the type of ships used by most companies to return assets to the company, or obtain lost assets. Due to the dangers of space in general, between pirates, navigational hazards, potential aliens, equipment failure and any number of things, sometimes spacecraft are lost. In general, a spacecraft is really just a relatively thin bit of material that keeps all the basics for living inside, which may be why those who make a living recovering supplies and sometimes craft when such breaks down are looked down upon. No Spacer wants to be reminded just how fragile a thing their ship is. Most salvage craft are a combination tug and Cargo hauler. if the cargo on the ship is worth salvaging, then it's loaded on board. if the Ship can be repaired, there is usually a team of techs and spare navigators to help bring it back, if not then sometimes it's towed to a safe position, towed back to port, or a beacon is left for a follow up expedition to break the ship down for recycling the components. The beacon also serves as a navigational warning for other craft who may come to the area, as well as a kind of notice that the ship has already been "picked clean" to stave off independent scavengers. Salvage Craft will also have a fairly impressive weapons array and several fighter craft on board, if only for defense and to chase away pirates or other scavengers who may arrive before or after they do. Likewise a great many of them have "Specialists" in handling the dead (many including a priest or other form of religious type to perform a catch-all final blessing) as well as a 'First contact" Specialist and linguist just in case they come across an "alien" craft. ------- '''Emergency Response Craft' "COLLISION! Pylon Fifteen. Three craft transmitting distress beacons. Sensors indicate plasma fires and heavy radiation from damaged drive housing. All response craft be advised. Suppressant Ships Three, Five and Six focus on containing the radiation leaks, Rescue teams Red, Orange and Green scan for survivors and retrieve if possible. Yellow and Purple collect escape pods that have already detached, Gold, collect ones that detach upon arrival. Fire teams One, Nine, Eleven and Fifteen I want you to...." '' ~Control Cordinator Sera Ket'xply, Emergency services, Lux Orbital station "Wulfgar" Space is dangerous, and most civilized locales that have a port that services and handles interstellar craft also has a small fleet of Emergency Response craft to handle troubles that may happen within range of facilities. Not to be confused with defensive craft (Such as interceptors or patrol ships) these are the small ships equipped with firefighting attachments, search and rescue teams, emergency tugs, manipulator arms and all manner of equipment to serve as both first aid, rescue and handle all manner of accidents and damage to craft. Reactor meltdowns, spacial collisions, even sabotage or wanton acts of aggression that can cause ships or stations to decompress, overload, buckle crash or otherwise suffer catastrophic or even major failures can usually be handled fairly regularly with Emergency response teams and their ships. most ports have a full array ready to launch within 30 seconds of an alert being sounded, and train diligently to maintain such readiness. ------- '''Research & Medical Craft' ''"Recall order?!? We've only been studying this species from orbit for five months so far, we haven't even begun to put teams down on the planet yet and their calling us back? Can't the legal team do something about this exploitation of native cultures act? That's what they get paid to do is find loopholes to allow us to continue our research!" '' ~Dr. Professor Tamistir Holland, Research vessel "Degrees of knowledge" A catch all term for medical facilities that are dispatched or even just orbiting in the case of need, to vehicles that conduct research that is unsuitable for planetary work (Either due to it's controversial nature, the need to be in orbit over the specimens being studied, or other factors such as environmental impact or spacial distance). Oftentimes combined together, a research vessel will have extensive medical facilities on board (you never know if the orange furry people of fulmoz 12 have a contagious disease their immune to, but would constitute plague conditions otherwise). Surprisingly, or not so much, due to the expensive nature of the equipment on board, usually the ships themselves have a very elaborate defensive array, or are accompanied by at least one Frigate type military ship. Usually it is more than enough to discourage potential looters or attackers from getting any ideas about a "easy" target. ------- Naturally as with other kinds of craft, it would take volumes of data to cover all the classifications and types of craft in service commercially. Galactic terraform themselves have over Five Thousand different classification of craft in service currently. The key factor to all of them being that the ships are owned and operated in service to a corporate (or occasional government) agency rather than privately owned. This provides a huge advantage in backing, whereas a independent freighter captain may spend several standard years arguing with the insurance company about "legitimate piracy" and the loss of his ship, due to the sheer funds behind them, a lost commercial freighter will usually have a check cut and back to business as usual.